Healing the Roots of Shame: Unlocking Self-Compassion Through the Body with Dr. Janina Fisher

Therapists frequently confront the negative impact of shame on their clients’ ability to find relief and perspective.  The feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy interfere with taking in positive experiences, leaving only hopelessness. Attempts to increase the ability for self-assertion get undermined by beliefs that they do not deserve  respect or care.  Even progress in the treatment or greater success in life stimulate more shame and self-judgment rather than pride in their hard work.  Clients repeatedly take two steps forward, then one step back.

This webinar will introduce participants to understanding shame from a neurobiological perspective—as a survival strategy driving somatic responses of “total submission,” disconnection, and numbing.  Participants will learn to help clients begin to relate to their shame with curiosity and mindfulness rather than self-hatred and self-rejection. Using a variety of somatic and mindfulness-based interventions inspired by Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, issues of shame can become an avenue to transformation rather than a source of stuckness in treatment.